Chop 100 g of the pecans (keep the remaining 25 g for final decoration) and 200 g chocolate into small pieces. I tried to take a picture so you could see the kind of size I’m talking about… but it came out quite over-exposed. Sorry!

If you have whole oats, you need to whizz them in a food processor to break them up slightly. Alternatively, you can buy oats which are already processed (luckily this is the sort I had in the cupboard!).

Put the oats, flour, sugar and bicarb of soda in a large bowl. Melt the butter (I used a microwave, but you could melt the butter in a pan on the hob) and pour onto the dry ingredients. Stir through until all the dry ingredients are coated with the butter. Put roughly two thirds of this mixture into your tin and press down until it forms a uniform, tightly-packed layer.

Sprinkle your chopped chocolate and pecans over this lower oaty layer. Like this:

Put 50 g of your caramel in a bowl and put to one side. Pour the rest of the caramel over the mixture in your tin. Like this:

Put the final third of the oaty mixture in the tin so it covers the chocolate, pecans and caramel. Push this top oat layer down to form another even, tightly-packed layer. Put the remaining pecans on the top, so you have something that looks a bit like this:

Put the oat and pecan tray bake in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly golden. Leave to cool in the tin. Turn out onto a cutting board. Drizzle with the remaining caramel and the 50 g melted chocolate.

Wait for the toppings to set. You can hurry this process along by putting the oat and pecan tray bake in the fridge for half an hour. Slice into squares.

While these oat and pecan squares may not sound addictive, I warn you, they are!

I would love to send some over. It was highly addictive and I’ve been banned from making it again until we have more people in the house to share it with!
Lovely and soft inside with gooey caramel and chocolate. Mmmmmm… 😉

It’s so good. I made another batch yesterday. The plan was to make it with hazelnuts, but my toddler distracted me (trying to steal and eat the ingredients!) and I forgot to put the nuts in! It turned out ok though – it’s just as delicious without any nuts, which is great if you have guests with allergies 🙂

It turns out the nuts aren’t essential. When I was making a second batch with hazelnuts, the toddler distracted me at an essential stage and the tray went in the oven sans nuts. The result was still delicious. The caramel and chocolate layer on the inside makes it 🙂

OK – I do not have a sweet tooth and I hate baking, but every time I read one of your recipes and look at the pictures, I have this strange desire to make and devour everything! (And my children would certainly welcome the change from store bought cookies… 😀 )